The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS Senior Sports Reporter bstubbs@tribunemedia.net The 1-2 punch of Linda Pierre and Anastacia Moultrie made the difference down the stretch as the defending champions Four J's Lady Cheetahs staved off elimination against pennant- winning Bommer Gee Lady Angels. At DW Davis gym last night, the duo combined for 38 points as the Lady Cheetahs' stunning 63-47 victory equalized the New Providence Women's Basketball Association's best-of-five championship. The series is tied 2-2. Now it will come down to the fifth and deciding game set for Thursday night. After Tuesday's performance, Pierre said, once they go back on the inside, they should have no problems to successfully defend their title. "Game five, we know it won't be an easy game," she said. "It's going to be a battle. Who brings it, that's whose game it will be to win it. We came this far, so we might as well bring our game and win it all." But Lady Angels' coach Anthony Swaby said they just simply didn't execute defensively and offensively and that was their downfall last night. "We allowed them to do whatever they wanted to do," he said. "The jump shots were not dropping and we didn't make any adjustment to it at all." For game five, Swaby said his Lady Angels just have to "come out and play." "We know what we have to do. Our offense feeds of our defense and if we don't play defense, we are in trouble." In what started out as a real defensive battle, the Lady Angels scored the first point in the first quarter, but it wasn't until about two minutes into the game that the Lady Cheetahs finally got their first point. Christine Sinclair, who along with Alyse Dean held up the backcourt in the absence of Latoya 'Lil Thing' Thompson, gave Four J's a 3-1 lead. But that was short-lived as Bommer Gee got two consecutive baskets from Ashley Moss to eventually post a 12-8 advantage at the end of the period. Leading 17-16, the Lady Cheetahs got a scare midway in the second quarter when Dean had to be lifted off the court with a dislocated knee. She eventually returned. The Lady Angels came back and took a 23-22 lead at the half. In the third quarter, Four J's started to turn things around as they opened a 28-25 lead on Pierre's jumper and they extended it to 37-30 on another from Teranna Pyfrom. While the Lady Angels managed to trim the deficit to 39-36 after Sinclair got tagged with a technical foul and Malesha Peterson canned a pair of free throws, the Lady Cheetahs held onto a 41-36 lead at the final break. It was all Four J's in the fourth as Bommer Gee couldn't find an answer to contain Pierre and Moultrie as they went to work on the inside. To go along with her game-high 25 points, Pierre had seven rebounds and three steals. Moultrie had 13 points, 16 rebounds, five steals, four assists and a block. Both Dean and Pamela Bethel had seven points and Sinclair finished with six. For the Lady Angels, Ashley Moss ended up with 12 points and eight rebounds and Suzette McKenzie had 10 points and eight rebounds. Chrishanda Rahming had eight points and both Peterson and Kaylicia Laing had six apiece.